I'm posting this because I don't have access to many white students. I'd be interested in how you would handle this touchy issue of race with white students in a lesson or unit...
News report and interview on Fox: Whites-Only Scholarship Turning Heads
Debate on CNN: White Only Scholarship Debate
Debate on MSNBC: Nonprofit offers scholarship to only white males
Article at The Root (an online magazine giving black perspectives on the news): New College Scholarship: Only White Males Need Apply
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Hi Shirley,
I teach high school sociology and run into the "touchy" issue every time we start our unit on race. You can almost see the kids cringe at the thought of engaging in a conversation about race (even at my school that is mostly white). I try to level the field by focusing on the fact that if we can not have honest conversations, then we will never understand the issue. There are a few misconceptions about the particular issue that you bring up.
1. Whites are only becoming a minority in comparison to all other races combined as a percentage of the U.S. population. Whites still make up the largest single group and the greatest whole number.
2. While as a percentage of their race only about 8-10% of whites live in poverty compared to 24-25% of blacks, in real numbers there are more whites living poverty than any other race (due to the dominance in whole number of the entire population). So of the total population in whole numbers, there are more whites living in poverty than any other racial or ethnic group. By the same standard however, the scholarship should be open to females as there are more females living in poverty in the U.S. than males.
We have the advantage of being able to look at this from a scientific perspective in sociology, looking at what is rather than deciding if it is good or bad. The above info alone (taken from the 2007 U.S. Census) could generate an interesting discussion in any class. What truly constitutes a minority is not population numbers, but the fact that the group lives with a disadvantage because they are identified with a specific trait.
First, thank you for posting this information and link. I will definitely be showing it to my AP government classes. We recently did debates on affirmative action and this will be a great follow-up. Race is a touchy subject and one that I tackle regularly with my majority Latino ELLs and often in my government classes which are mostly white, as am I. Being honest and respectful, and demanding it of your students, helps these discussions to be useful. If you do them as often as such issues arise, it gets easier.
You asked how we would use the story. I will start by showing either the FOX of CNN clip and ask for comments. I predict that many of the white males will practically cheer, thinking this is needed and overdue. I am curious about their reaction to the only 25% Caucasian requirement. I suspect the idea that scholarships to help the disadvantaged should be for any race of low socioeconomic status, will be suggested. We will read the statement on the FMAE website and maybe one or more of the news articles and comment again. Certainly the idea of "reverse discrimination" will come up. I will mostly let the students share ideas with little input from me.
Before we end this discussion, I will introduce/remind them of the academic (?) definition of racism as "a system of privilege based on race" with the presumption of whiteness as "the norm" and everyone else as "the other." Using this definition, which not all will accept, there can be discrimination against whites, but no reverse racism. I will try to help them see the inherent privileges that most of them have experienced growing up white.
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